How do you warm up?
 

I have a steep hill that I have to ride a short distance from my house. Usually by the time I'm at the top I'm warmed up. What I have learned is not to push too much going up the hill. By starting out slower I'm able to have a better ride. Later, I can push myself up hills and not have ruin my ride, well within reason.

So guess I'd see if you are pushing too hard from the start and if then it takes miles 2-8 to recover.

A Sauna

Ride easy for 10-15 minutes. I often get to organized events or group rides a bit early and do a few laps around the block or something similar before the pre-ride discussion.

The hills definitely work. It seems that I drag on the straights when I first start, but the hills near me say "game on"

Niacin.

In really cool temps, I jump on the trainer and spin for 5 miles.

starting the ride at an easy pace.

The ride up the 10% grade in either direction out of my driveway pretty much warms me up.

For me, the first 15 minutes is always brutal, whether I'm riding for 30 minutes or 6 hours. Once I'm going good and my HR has settled out, I feel fine.

I stretch my quads and my calves before getting on the bike. The first 1/2 mile or so, I drop to a lower gear and intentionally spin a reasonable rpm at a lower than normal effort. The goal isn't to "go slow" but instead to get the kinks worked out and get my HR woke up before I kick into a more difficult gear and apply a real/normal load. I also have a small hill at about mile 0.75 that gets things moving.

A lot of times, my hamstrings are REALLY tight. So I usually need to go rather easy for first few miles. Unfortunately, I usually can't manage that go too hard too fast and regret it.

Yup. Just getting out of my neighborhood and riding is a couple of hundred feet of climbing. That wakes the legs up. Try and hold my HR down below 135 while doing them, usually, unless stravafever overtakes me and I feel the need to try and go faaaasssst. (For me. Which is 'pretty bloody slow' in the larger scheme of things')

stretch and ride slowly, but really I make sure I'm properly nutrified before setting out. for me that means a meal way in advance, including caffeine, B6 & B12, then right before heading out either banana or a small box of raisins. I don't like to rush in the morning, I like a 2hr lead time.

also I've been checking my blood pressure at home and 1st thing in the morning on waking it's on the low side. I need to take out the trash, eat, coffee, do the cat litter, get stuff from my car, etc etc etc

Even though stretching isn't the way to go these days I find that there are a few of them my body really appreciates. I do those if needed. Outside of that I go really easy the first few miles and focus on form.

I usually take it easy for the first mile. Sometimes longer. I find that a proper cool down really helps to keep the tight muscles at bay.

It's two miles from my place until I get to the roads that I can really open up on outside of town so those two miles are my warm up.

short lunch rides, get about 2 mile warm up, so roughly 6 1/2 mins

long weekend rides will get a 5-6mile warm up (when I reach the other side of the city) before I increase the speed to tempo and time trial to the club ride start

It usually takes me a mile or two at moderate cadence and low power. This is hard to do on those weekend rides leaving out of my house since my 'hood is fairly hilly. I'm either coasting or grinding until I get a mile or two out.

I just jump on and ride.

I usually stretch my quads and hamstrings holding each stretch for about 15 seconds doing 2 sets of 2, Then i jump on the bike and peddle easily 20 minuits to get a nice breathing rhythm. Then the muscles are ready to do the work you require of them. And cool down the same way with stretching and easy spinning

Chris

Ride Safe

This. I mean, I get the idea that you "warm up", but since that's going to happen regardless, I'm not sure why this needs to be a distinct part of one's ride (racing being the exception). But whatever, if that works better for you, keep on keepin' on.

For a warm up I simply work to keep my pace at 80-90 RPM which helps get my legs ready for the ups and downs of the ride with hills or intensity of flat rides at higher speeds. If I do this for the first 10-15 minutes of the ride it really makes a difference for me. IMHO